My life has changed significantly in the past two years. I've been trying to live a simple life since I first saw Rhonda's Down to earth book in 2013. I was working FiFo at the time and my busy life didn't suit the simple lifestyle I was craving. I was trying but it didn't work. I became really frustrated. See, the problem was, that I was trying to live a life of simplicity. A simple life isn't an easy life, it's a lot of hard work and determination and it just doesn't work if you do it part time.
So when I came back home at the end of 2016 to take on a 'normal' job, I suddenly had so much time! Working only 40 hours instead of 84 hours a week was amazing! I suddenly had mornings and evenings and weekends and public holidays and holidays when I wanted them - fantastic! I wanted to try all those things I've never had the chance to do before. I had Janus, my beautiful Rough Collie Pup and we went to obedience training on Tuesday night, then Janus got older and smarter and we started to do agility and Rally O and suddenly I was doing dog classes about 2-3 nights a week plus weekends.
Sewing was another hobby I started way back but I never learnt on how to do it properly or how to read a pattern. So I was really happy to attend the local sewing class on Monday night and then a bag making class that weekend and a pant making class another weekend and then an overlocker course... What I didn't finish in class, I never finished at home because I didn't have the time or the relaxed mindset to do it. My best friend works full time, runs her own business and has a family. I always looked up to her and thought 'if she can do it, I should be able to' but I never did and it really frustrated me. She had a lot less time than me but she managed to do more - how? Why wasn't I 'producing'?
Suddenly I found myself so busy I was hardly ever home. But I still have 3 acres, a thriving veggie garden, 15 chooks, a husband and a home to take care off - plus all the other simple living things such as knitting, preserving, making break, making cleaning products, meal planning, grocery shopping, budgeting, taking care of taxes, superfunds, repairs and so on. While 2017 started with so much time, by the end of it I was so busy, my days were scheduled to the max.
It wasn't until I had a break that I noticed I was going on 120% ALL the time. So I decided my new year's resolution will be to slow down. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all those things I did but I just don't need that many of them or that much of it. I craved sitting on my porch and just take it all in like Janus does every night. He sits there on the grass every afternoon and every night and just looks around. He checks out the cows and the roos and the stars, he watches the moon rise and the neighbours coming home from work. I should be doing that too - so I decided to stop multitasking and take time to smell the roses.
BUT if I still want to do all the things I love doing, I either have to do less or be more organised. I noticed that I wasn't very organised during the last year, so I looked into why that was. I noticed that because I scheduled everything so closely last year, I didn't always complete it and than I didn't have time for other things. Those things were normally things which I don't enjoy doing like my paperwork. When I started 2017, I started a Home Folder similar to what Rhonda suggested. By about May I could have filled 3 folders with sewing and knitting patterns, garden ideas, recipes to try and so on. I just found more and more, printed it, piled it on top of the folder and when I was looking for something, it was too hard to find. I used Pinterest and that was overflowing with ideas as well. I had so many outstanding tasks, it was a nightmare.
...to all things we have to do, I must say: the best thing is to sit outside early in the morning or late afternoon/evening and watch around (like Janus do) it's like holiday!!!
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